London fears over UK exit from EU

A British exit from the EU could prompt an exodus of leading foreign banks and undermine London’s dominance of the foreign exchange markets, the head of the City of London financial district said yesterday.

British prime minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership and hold an “in-out” referendum if re-elected in 2015, prompting fears that the world’s sixth largest economy could drop out of the club it joined in 1973.

The Lord Mayor of London, whose predecessors have spoken for the merchants of the City of London since 1189, told Reuters a possible British exit was a significant threat to London that would go against 2,000 years of trading history.